Source Point Press 2020
Written by Milton Lawson
Illustrated by Dave Chisholm
Coloured by Fabian Cobos
Lettered by Damon Kane
Thompson Heller, a private detective who travels the stars solving cases that have political or moral intrigue, travels to a faraway planet to help an old friend accused of murder. Heller doesn't believe his friend is guilty, but video surveillance seems to prove otherwise. While on the case, Heller sees friction in his romantic life. He's falling in love with his recurring intellectual sparring partner, a prominent religious academic. The complication arises from the fact that he's the most prominent atheist in the galaxy. Another impossible case for the man whose friends call him "Hell!"
This is odd and entertaining. I mean I like the futuristic nod to the Detective shows of the past with that lovable rapscallion as the lead but this goes possibly more than the extra mile. To meet and see Hell in action is something to behold and as we learn alongside him and what he does we see how much thought and care was put into the story. This is genuinely a fun book to read and the fact that it feels familiar and it’s wrapped up in this futuristic vision. This is one of the many reasons why I love Source Point Press because I cannot think of another publishing house that would put this out.
I am thoroughly enjoying the way that this is being told. How we see the story & plot development move things forward through how we see the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is really rather well done. I like the way that we see Hell going through the book, actually doing detective work which is something I have genuinely missed. The character development is great and it’s fun to see how the interactions along with the way they act and react to the situations and circumstances keep fleshing them out. The pacing is perfectly done and as it takes us through the pages revealing Hell and the world he lives in we are treated to quite a spectacle.
How we see this structured and how the layering within it takes shape is extremely nice to see. How everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is utterly fantastic. This is a true unexpected gem of a book and you need to be checking this out.
The interiors here are really rather quaint and I that. They remind me of a higher end old school underground comix. I am really impressed by the creativity and imagination that we see here. The linework is fantastic and how we see the varying weights being utilised to create the detail work is beautifully rendered. That we get backgrounds here makes me incredibly happy, I’d like more but i’m happy with what we’ve got. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a good, strong and solid eye for storytelling. The colour work we see is nicely rendered as well. I like the choices of the colours we see and how the hues and tones within them are utilised to create tehs shading, highlights and shadow work.
With things what they are in the world and especially in the U.S. it’s nice to see something like this come out that lets you forget about life for a while and gives you that much needed escapism. This is going to be a fun series that much is for sure and I cannot wait to see how this is going to be moving forward. I wonder if we’ll keep the stories in a done format like this issue is with those threads going through the entire series keeping it tied together but either way I’m excited to see where this is going next.